Clearance of liquid from the airways at birth is a poorly understood process, partly due to the difficulties of observing and measuring the distribution of air within the lung. Imaging dynamic processes within the lung in vivo with high contrast and spatial resolution is therefore a major challenge. However, phase contrast X-ray imaging is able to exploit inhaled air as a contrast agent, rendering the lungs of small animals visible due to the large changes in the refractive index at air/tissue interfaces. In concert with the high spatial resolution afforded by X-ray imaging systems (